Application of solution-mineral equilibrium chemistry to solution mining of uranium ores

Modern methods of uranium solution mining are typically accompanied by gains and losses of mass through reagent consumption by rock-forming minerals, with subsequent formation of clay minerals, gypsum, carbonates, and iron oxyhydroxides. A systematic approach to alleviate such problems involves the application of leach solutions that are in equilibrium with the host-rock minerals but in disequilibrium with the ore-forming minerals. This partial equilibrium can be approximated by solution-composition adjustments within the systems K2O-Al2O3SiO2-H2O and Na2O3-Al2O3SiO2-H2O. Uranium ore containing 0.15 percent U3O8 from the Gulf Mineral Resources Corporation's Mariano Lake mine, the Smith Lake district of the Grants mineral belt, was collected for investigation. Presented are a theoretical evaluation of leachate data and an experimental treatment of the ore, which contained mainly K-feldspar, plagioclase feldspar, and quartz (with lesser amounts of micas, clay minerals, and organic carbonaceous material). Small-scale (less than or equal to 1 kg) column-leaching experiments were conducted to model the results of conventional leaching operations and to provide leachate solutions that could be compared with solutions calculated to be in equilibrium with the matrix minerals. Leach solutions employed include: 1) sulfuric acid, 2) sodium bicarbonate, and 3) sulfuric acid with 1.0 molal potassium chloride. The uranium concentrations in the sodium-bicarbonate leach solution and the acid-leach solution were about a gram per liter at the termination of the tests. However, the permeability of the ore in the acid leach was greatly reduced, owing to the formation of clay minerals. Uranium solubility in the leach column stabilized with the potassium-chloride solution was calculated from leachate compositions to be limited by the solubility of carnotite